Tasmanian Chocolate Tomato Review (Dwarf Tomato Project)

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Quick Summary of Tasmanian Chocolate

  • 🌍 Origin: A highly popular release from the international Dwarf Tomato Project. Russian growers affectionately refer to varieties from this project as “Gnomes.”
  • 🌿 Plant Habit: Dwarf / Determinate (tree-type). It has a stout, strong main stem (shtamb) and typically grows 50-80 cm (1.6-2.6 ft) tall outdoors, though it can reach over 1 m (3.3 ft) in a greenhouse. Like many dwarfs, it has thick, slightly crumpled, dark green rugose foliage. It thrives in open ground, greenhouses, and is absolutely perfect for growing in large containers (e.g., 12-liter / 3-gallon pots).
  • 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Beautiful oblate (flattened-round) tomatoes with a unique dark terracotta, brick-red, or mahogany brown color. Despite the small plant size, it produces surprisingly large beefsteaks weighing 80-200 g (2.8-7 oz), with some record-breakers reaching over 400 g (14 oz)!
  • 👅 Flavor: Consistently rated as very tasty. It has a rich, sweet flavor with a perfectly balanced hint of acidity, avoiding the watery blandness common in many early varieties.
  • Yield & Growing Tips: An extremely early and heavy yielder. Growers strongly advise staking or supporting the plant—not because it’s tall, but because the sheer weight of the massive tomatoes will physically topple the short bush over. It generally does not require pruning (suckering).
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Svetlyachok-plus (Svetlana) ⭐ Pro Grower (1,450 posts)
📍 Unknown

Seeds from Popenko. An excellent early, I would even say super-early variety. Tree-type bush (shtamb) 50-60 cm (1.6-2 ft). Grew outdoors in open ground. It was the very first to start setting fruit. The taste is good for an early one, not watery-sour but a normal tomato flavor with a hint of acidity.

The tomatoes are oblate, a beautiful red-brown color. It’s worth tying it to a stake only because the bush simply falls over from the abundance of tomatoes. The fruits are not small, from 80 to 200g (2.8-7 oz). Even as a seedling, this variety is a handsome guy; a sturdy little mushroom with dark green, slightly crumpled (rugose) leaves.

Edited January 17, 2015 by Drosera

Sturdy Tasmanian Chocolate dwarf seedling

Dwarf tomato plant loaded with unripe green fruits

Harvested beautiful terracotta brown Tasmanian Chocolate tomatoes

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Natashkinnn (Natalya) 👤 User (235 posts)
📍 Leningrad Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4)

Svetlyachok-plus said:

An excellent early, I would even say super-early variety… Even as a seedling, this variety is a handsome guy; a sturdy little mushroom with dark green, slightly crumpled leaves.

I subscribe to every word!!!

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Elena_ (Elena) ⭐ Pro Grower (3,838 posts)
📍 Samara Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4)

I have the variety from Kulik, although in his description it has a simple (potato) leaf, my plants have regular leaves. Very short seedlings, the first cluster on my plants is after the 6th leaf.

Small sturdy dwarf tomato seedlings
Rugose foliage on Tasmanian Chocolate seedling
Top down view of dwarf foliage

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cat2008 (Oksana) ⭐ Pro Grower (5,827 posts)
📍 Orsha, Belarus (USDA Zone 5)

Svetlana, and here is your-my Tasmanian Chocolate:

At first, I doubted it because of the color of the tomatoes (they still turned out more red for me) – I thought I mixed them up as seedlings… but still – it’s him! I haven’t had such leaves and bush structure on any other variety – indeed, a “sturdy mushroom” – the leaf is fat, beautiful, slightly crumpled (rugose)… the bush as a seedling is like a toy 👍

True, in the greenhouse it has already outgrown me, and at the top the tomatoes are even larger – a couple are hanging that are already over half a kilo (1.1 lbs).. 😳

Edited November 26, 2015 by Drosera

Red-brown Tasmanian Chocolate tomatoes

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Semechka ⭐ Pro Grower (23,537 posts)
📍 Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia (USDA Zone 2/3)

Girls, can this variety be grown in pots? What was the maximum height?

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Olga ⭐ Pro Grower (4,885 posts)
📍 Tula Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4)

Semechka said:

Girls, can this variety be grown in pots? What was the maximum height?

Mine grew in open ground, height 50 cm (1.6 ft).

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Veronika ⭐ Pro Grower (3,436 posts)
📍 Unknown

My Tasmanian was 110 cm (3.6 ft) tall. But all my tomatoes turn out tall, taller than stated. I got a seedling from Lenochka (Plena), for which I am very grateful to her. The color is awesome, brick-brown, very tasty. The plant itself is sturdy, well-foliated. I only removed those small stems that grew inwards into the bush, otherwise it would have been an impenetrable thicket. I will definitely plant it next year!

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Lana_s_Kavkaza (Svetlana) ⭐ Pro Grower (19,262 posts)
📍 Pyatigorsk, Russia (USDA Zone 6)

Height in the greenhouse up to 1.2 – 1.4 m (4 – 4.6 ft). If fed all summer, it bears fruit until frost. I left almost all suckers, there were few of them. I liked the taste.

Beautiful dark chocolate tomato sliced
Tasmanian Chocolate tomatoes ripening on the bush
Multiple heavy fruits on dwarf plant

Harvested mahogany brown tomatoes

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Lana_s_Kavkaza (Svetlana) ⭐ Pro Grower (19,262 posts)
📍 Pyatigorsk, Russia (USDA Zone 6)

A sturdy fellow as a seedling, didn’t stretch out.

Compact sturdy dwarf seedling

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ilja (Ilya) 👤 User (758 posts)
📍 Klin District, Moscow Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4)

Planted Tasmanian Chocolate for the first time. The seeds were from Popenko. The bushes grew up to 0.8 meters (2.6 ft) tall. The fruits were very tasty, juicy, sweet, and festive-looking, weighing up to 300 grams (10.5 oz). The harvest was good.

Beautifully ribbed large Tasmanian Chocolate tomato

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Agnija (Agniya) ⭐ Pro Grower (2,530 posts)
📍 Pskov Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4/5)

Seedling at 6 weeks:
Top view (same age)

The first fruit ripened on July 11 (germination was on March 8):

Tasmanian Chocolate seedling side view
Seedling top view showing rugose leaves
First ripe brown tomato on the bush

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Agnija (Agniya) ⭐ Pro Grower (2,530 posts)
📍 Pskov Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4/5)

In appearance, the plant resembles domestic tree-type (shtamb) varieties. It grew in open ground, slightly exceeded 0.5 meters (1.6 ft). I pruned suckers up to the first cluster, that was enough.

The fruits were of medium weight, 100-200g (3.5-7 oz), there were no small ones. The color of the fruits is typical for brown-fruited ones, the cross-section too (the color in the photo is not accurate). The flesh is meaty and buttery. The taste is sweet and rich. Despite the endless pouring rain. The taste was saved by clay soil enriched with humus, ash, and mulch.

Seeds from Kulik via garnet (thanks, dear!)

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tomatinka (Vera) ⭐ Pro Grower (14,911 posts)
📍 Tyumen Region, Russia (USDA Zone 3)

It is from the Tomato Dwarf (Dwarf Tomato Project) series. They all have this kind of leaf.

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Natasha-ogorodnitsa (Nataliya) 👤 User (423 posts)
📍 Unknown

Yes, for me it was dwarf-sized, less than 50 cm (1.6 ft), little fruits up to 200g (7 oz), terracotta color. The taste 👍, everyone liked it. Didn’t prune suckers at all, there was nothing to remove except leaves to let light into the clusters. The leaf is regular, but curled into a fist (rugose), even the flower clusters ended up inside the leaves.

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Prostoy chaynik (Tatyana) ⭐ Pro Grower (1,064 posts)
📍 Leningrad Region, Russia / Tbilisi, Georgia

I had Tasmanian Chocolate from Popenko. Such vigorous bushes, leaves are regular and, as in the previous post, “but curled into a fist, even the flower clusters ended up inside the leaves”.

The fruits were approximately 200 grams (7 oz), but there were many at 300 grams (10.5 oz) too, and one record-breaker – 402 grams (14.2 oz).
They taste sweet, juicy, dark terracotta color (in the photo the tomato came out lighter). Since I planted them in the greenhouse indecently late this year (as late as June 5th), some are still ripening on the windowsill.

Large Tasmanian Chocolate tomato sitting on scale

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Prostoy chaynik (Tatyana) ⭐ Pro Grower (1,064 posts)
📍 Leningrad Region, Russia / Tbilisi, Georgia

And yes, even though they are not very tall (about 80 cm / 2.6 ft high), but productive, it’s good to tie them up, because they can fall over onto their neighbor sideways.

Edited September 25, 2019 by Prostoy chaynik

Cross section of juicy Tasmanian Chocolate tomato

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T@tk@ (Tatyana) ⭐ Pro Grower (34,580 posts)
📍 Kazan, Russia (USDA Zone 4)

In terms of taste among the dwarfs, it’s in third place for me after Wild Fred and Uluru Ochre. Otherwise, it differs little from other dwarfs.

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Skaya (Natalya) 👤 User (55 posts)
📍 Altai Territory, Siberia, Russia (USDA Zone 3)
Beautiful plate of Tasmanian Chocolate dwarf tomatoes
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sofochkamai (Svetlana) ⭐ Pro Grower (4,293 posts)
📍 Yekaterinburg, Russia (USDA Zone 3)

A good, productive, tasty “gnome” (Dwarf Tomato Project), grew in a 12-liter (3.1 gallon) pot, height 60-70 cm (2-2.3 ft), the fruits are oblate, terracotta color, the taste is excellent, rich.

Tasmanian Chocolate grown successfully in a container pot
Container grown dwarf tomato plant loaded with fruit
Beautifully shaped terracotta brown tomato

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